State politicians get 2nd chance

Given a choice between doing right by school children and doing right by union lobbyists, can California lawmakers guess the correct course? At least one man in Sacramento remains optimistic they can, which is a heartening note on which to open the new legislative season.

Now, let's see if they really can.

Our tireless optimist is state Sen. Alex Padilla. Last week, the Democrat from Pacoima renewed his attempt to make it easier for school districts to fire teachers accused of child molestation and other serious misbehavior.

Last spring, a similar Padilla bill was killed by the Assembly Education Committee under pressure from teachers' unions. It's fair to ask why anybody should expect a better result now that the old Senate Bill 1530 has been repackaged as S.B. 10.

There are two possible explanations, and if they're proven accurate and the Legislature ends up passing S.B. 10, it could mark a bright new day for government in California.

One reason for optimism is that the new Legislature has a lot of new members, who may have different views on the issue of how to deal with teachers accused of sexual abuse. Half of the members of the last session's Assembly Education Committee are gone, having been defeated for re-election, or decided not to run again, or hit their term limits.

Unfortunately, the departed include three of the Padilla bill's five supporters on the committee, including Julia Brownley, now in Congress; Linda Halderman and Chris Norby. Meanwhile, one of the holdover members who voted "no" is the committee's new chairwoman, Joan Buchanan. So the turnover itself won't necessarily boost the chances of the new bill.

The other optimistic theory is that the lawmakers who let the original bill die have been shamed by what they did and will straighten up this time. Let's pause while Californians chortle at the idea of politicians feeling shame. Still, this could happen.

The defeat of the original Padilla bill drew public attention to the cowardice of office-holders faced with lobbying by powerful labor unions. Inspired by the Los Angeles Unified School District scandal over this year's spate of child-molestation cases, the bill had support from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (far from a union opponent) and had been approved by the state Senate. But when it came up for debate in the Assembly Education Committee, the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers, and United Teachers Los Angeles put on a show of force, busing in members.

Ostensibly, the unions' message was that the Padilla bill would deny teachers legal due process and there already were laws in place to protect children. But really their message was: Remember the power of teachers' unions. Defy them at your peril.

The new Padilla bill gives Assembly and Senate Democrats a chance to refute decades of evidence they're controlled by public-employee unions, to show the state didn't need the limits on union political power offered in Proposition 32, which was defeated in November thanks to $73 million in opposition funding (mostly from unions).

The bill would give school boards the final say on teacher firings for sexual, violent or drug offenses, replacing the current system in which dismissed teachers may appeal to a three-member state board, a process that can take years and lead to costly settlements.

This seems so sensible that S.B. 10 should sail through the Legislature. But, of course, the same was true of S.B. 1530.

Californians must hope Padilla's optimism is justified and that something about the way business is done in the capitol really has changed for the better. We'll see.